1. SPORTS
www.MinotDailyNews.com
Sunday, March 1, 2015 • Section C
Sports Editor: Ryan Holmgren • 857-1934 or 1-800-735-3229
• email: rholmgren@minotdailynews.com
C8
Bishop
Ryan
upsets
No.2 seed
ORCS
C3
MSU’s
Haugen,
Eull
advance
to 2nd
day of
regionals
RETURNOF THE
MAGIMinot High
locks up first
state title in
boys hockey
since 1992
By JOE MELLENBRUCH
Staff Writer
jmellenbruch@minotdailynews.com
FARGO — Minot High’s boys
hockey co-coaches Jason Bennett
and John Grubb know how dan-
gerous their team can be.
Combine that potential with an
early lead? Look out.
The Magicians hadn’t scored
the first goal in either of their two
state tournament games before
Saturday’s title bout with Grand
Forks Central.
They accomplished that feat
against the Knights. The result?
Minot’s first state title since 1992.
“You just have to play every
game like it’s your last,” said Minot
senior goaltender Brey Effertz,
who was named the tournament’s
most valuable player. “This is
what dreams are made of.”
Boosted by a mammoth 37-save
effort from Effertz, Minot edged
the defending state runner-up 2-1
at Scheels Arena.
The Magicians are now 2-0 all-
time in state championship games.
A victory clinched by senior
forward Matt Flom’s third game-
winner of the tournament, the
Magi are now the only West
Region team to claim multiple
state titles.
And what a rollar coaster ride it
was.
“We just got the kids to buy in.
We had our struggles early in the
year. We started 1-3-1, and I think
we were about ready to get run out
of town as coaches,” said Bennett,
one of two state co-coaches of the
year along with colleague Grubb.
“We told the kids just to relax, that
we’d be there at the end of the
year. And sure enough, with some
pretty good goaltending and some
timely scoring, look where we’re at
now.”
The contest was closely con-
tested at the beginning. A bout of
misfortune from Central goal-
tender Taner Bender helped Minot
Joe Mellenbruch/MDN
Minot High senior goaltender and state tournament most valuable player Brey Effertz is mauled by teammates after the
Magicians secured their second state title in school history Saturday at Scheels Arena in Fargo. Effertz made
37 saves in a 2-1 victory over Grand Forks Central.See MHS — Page C3
Majettes’ Reiter wins state title in vault
By RYAN HOLMGREN
Sports Editor
rholmgren@minotdailynews.com
Minot High’s state vault cham-
pion picked herself off the mat at
Magic City Campus not once, but
twice Saturday afternoon.
After winning the all-around
portion of the state meet’s team
competition Friday, Madison
Reiter set her sights on claiming
the all-around title the following
day in the individual competition.
Thump.
In Reiter’s first event, she suf-
fered a costly fall on the uneven
bars that plummeted her score to
8.833 in an event in which she
posted a 9.400 the night before.
The fall put her down, but not
out of the running for the all-
around title.
Thump.
In her second event, Reiter fell
on the balance beam and settled
for a 9.000 — 0.650 below her
score Friday.
That fall made it impossible to
top Dickinson junior Acacia
Fossum’s winning score of 38.667
— tied for the fourth best all-
around total in state meet history,
and 0.100 better than Reiter’s
impressive tally from Friday.
But Reiter, named the state’s
senior athlete of the year, proved
that she’s just as strong mentally
and she is physically.
“She’s a determined athlete,”
Minot co-coach Marisa Albertson
said. “She’s got a great work ethic.
In Reiter’s third event, she
turned in one of her top floor rou-
tines of the season. She leaped and
danced and tumbled her way to a
9.783, a mere 0.017 shy of
Fossum’s first-place 9.800.
But Reiter was just beginning to
find her groove.
In the final event of her prep
career, she flipped and twisted
nearly impeccably for a winning
score of 9.717 on fault. That
helped boost her all-around total to
37.333, good for third place. But
more importantly, she became
Minot’s first individual event win-
ner since Samantha Huether won
the same event in 2011.
“I’m really glad that I could at
least win the vault after I had start-
ed out pretty tough on bars and
beam. It didn’t feel so good after I
did that,” said Reiter, the Majettes’
first senior athlete of the year since
Brooklyn Bender in 2010. “Doing
Ryan Holmgren/MDN
Minot High sen-
ior Madison
Reiter scored
9.717 points on
vault Saturday
at Magic City
Campus to
secure the
Majettesʼ first
individual state
title since 2011.
See REITER — Page C3